BetterUp raises $103M to fast-track employee learning and development

BetterUp, a company that connects employees with expert career and leadership development coaches online, has secured a $103 million Series C from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Threshold Ventures, Freestyle Capital, Crosslink Capital, Tenaya Capital and Silicon Valley Bank.

For access to its mobile coaches, which are meant to expedite development among employees and foster purpose and passion within the workplace, BetterUp offers a SaaS service to enterprises. Its customers include Airbnb, AppDynamics and Instacart, as well as 28 of the Fortune 1000.

The company said recently that the influx of Fortune 1000 customers has led to tripled revenue growth year-over-year.

“We are proud to be enabling innovative companies who recognize that their biggest asset—their people—deserve an elevated employee experience that speaks to who they are as whole persons, not just employees,” BetterUp co-founder and chief executive officer Alexi Robichaux said in a statement. “By combining human expertise, the latest advances in scientific research, and digital technologies including AI and machine learning we’re delivering unprecedented levels of personalized learning at scale.”

San Francisco-based BetterUp has previously raised about $43 million in venture capital funding since it was founded in 2012. It reached a valuation of $125 million with a $30 million Series B in March 2018, according to PitchBook. BetterUp declined to disclose its Series C valuation

BetterUp says its latest round is the largest ever for a “tech-enabled coaching, behavior change and wellness” platform. There isn’t a whole lot of competition in that space just yet. Nonetheless, $100 million is a sizable capital infusion for any startup.

Though career coaching hasn’t become VCs new favorite space — yet — startups creating tools for other startups is a trend that’s taken off in the last couple of years. Just look at Brex . In just two years, the company, which creates corporate cards for startups, has garnered a valuation of $2.6 billion. Gusto, WeWork, Plaid, Stripe, Atrium, Intercom and Outreach are just a few more examples of this emerging category.

“BetterUp is the one company fundamentally investing in the most important part of the future of work — human beings, Lightpseed’s Will Kohler said in a statement. “No other company drives measurable outcomes that change lives and workplaces.”

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